1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a driving control apparatus mounted on a vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, an automatic steering system for controlling a traveling of the vehicle and supporting driving of the vehicle is known. For example, according to the automatic steering system disclosed by a Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open publication No. 2003-085698, when an obstacle exists ahead of the vehicle, the automatic steering system detects the location of an obstacle in the adjacent traffic lane (e.g. other vehicle) and performs the automatic steering control or notifies the driver of the obstacle existing in the adjacent traffic lane.
Moreover, a Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2008-074210 discloses a driving control apparatus in which the distance between the present vehicle and the preceding vehicle (i.e., inter-vehicle distance) is shortened so as to prevent the other vehicle cutting in front of the present vehicle, when a predetermined region is sufficiently secured in front of the present vehicle for avoiding collisions, based on the steering control.
However, in the on-vehicle driving control apparatus disclosed by the patent document No. 2003-085698, the region which is reserved for collision avoidance is recognized after an obstacle in front of the vehicle is detected. Therefore, since it is considered that a condition may arise in which an obstacle in front of the vehicle cannot be avoided, the present vehicle cannot reliably avoid obstacles in front of the present vehicle.
Further, according to the on-vehicle driving control apparatus disclosed by the above-described patent document No. 2008-074210, since the inter-vehicle distance is relatively short, when the preceding vehicle performs rapid braking, it is hard to move the present vehicle towards the region where collision is avoided by the steering control operation.